You may not want to buy a Tablet PC.

But suppose that your current notebook could be upgraded with a touch-sensitive screen. And suppose it ran Tablet Edition, anyway, at no extra cost. Would you use the "ink" that seems to have spattered all over the corporate landscape, then?

While I agree with a lot of what was said, it sure seemed like that survey stopped 6 months ago; as it seems so very dated. For example, the 2nd Generational Tablets, are all Centrino-powered, and the “next to the newest”, is near equal. :) With LG Tablet being BEYOND. Pretty good mix of OEMs for supposed nil market. MS and OEMs do need to do much much more (actually anything serious for that matter), but it is all a long-term roadmap. Post-Comdex begins the grassroots push, least one can hope. :)

• Acer TMC111 - 10.4", 1.0 GHz ULV, 3.2 lbs.
• Acer TMC115, TMC120 - 1.5+ GHz, 10.4"
• Acer 250PE - Pent 4 2.6 GHz (Laptop/Digitizer)
• Acer TMC300 - 1.5 GHz, 14.1"
• HP Tablet PC TC1100 - 10.4", 1.0 GHz and Celeron 800 MHz (NVIDIA Video). Also a HP 12.1" Convertible forthcoming.
• Electrovaya Scribbler SC-2000/2010 - 12.1", 1.2 GHz LV, 9 hour battery life
• Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook T Series T3010 (D) Tablet PC - 1.4 GHz, 12.1"
• Fujitsu Stylistic ST5000 (D) Tablet PC - 12.1" and 1.0 GHz+ Centrino (Slate model, 3.2 lbs.)
• Sharp Actius TN10W - 12.1" XGA AGLR TFT LCD, 1.1 GHz MLV
• Tatung TTAB-B12D - 12.1", 900MHz ULV and 1.2 GHz LV
• LG Tablet PC - 12.1" and 1.8+ GHz (Dothan)
• Toshiba M200 Tablet PC - 12.1" and 1.5 GHz (NVIDIA Video) with L/P projector mode.
• Gateway M275X / M275XL Tablet PC - 1.4 GHz and 1.6 GHz, 14.1"

Well, for one it wouldn’t be touch-sensitive, but rather Active Digitizer’ed. :) But one model, already taking that path, the Acer 250PE. Yes, eventually it will all morph into that, the notebooks will have Tablet-like functionality. And when the price point gets near-even, why wouldn’t you opt for a notebook that does more? Best of both worlds.

Edited by author 11-07-2003 08:50 AM
The president of Tablet maker Acer is quoted at <http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5095467.html>; - I don't know if you got that story, who wants to go hear businessmen whine anyway - that the extra cost of Tablet hardware over a notebook is up to $60, including the OS it's $200... you put the cost of digitiser at $150, keyboard and trackerpad don't make up the difference, maybe the Tablets are missing other parts (large screen and DVD, and a hot processor). Many Tablets /have/ keyboards. But by the arithmetic, Microsoft is charging at least $140 /more/ (after the retail chain scale-up) to manufacturers for the personal operating system (well, XP Pro, but a Tablet is purely a personal PC) that happens to have unsatisfactory* speech recognition and handwriting thrown in. *Processor speed is a lot of the problem. That's cureable, but not quickly.

I intend to buy one anyway and I'm using one at work, because I have this RSI-type problem with my wrists. The TDV Vison one, which has gone to ground but logically might show up at Comdex, looks cute if it works. But I grudge those extra MS-bucks.

Third-paty software doesn't matter. There is no killer app, except for a screen that you work on with a pen. Pen on screen is the killer app.
.
.

There are a few fun utilities, but nobody has seriously succeeded “in adding pen-based functionality and interface enhancements to the mainstream applications people already use on a day-to-day basis.”

Not true at all. More always needed, but plently already out in the market. One such example: Tablet PC Enhancements for Outlook, which adds “pen-based functionality and interface enhancements” to a mainstream application, namely Outlook. Also more in the big leagues, FranklinCovey’s PlanPlus 2.0 for Outlook adds Ink functionality per Tablets. And TabletPlanner 3.0 itself is a PIM dreamtool and it is full of Ink, full. And KeyLogix ActiveDocs, Ink and Form enables MS Word/MS Excel documents, both being very mainstream. And PenOffice 2.5 has long long dealt with Inking common everyday applications, tho in a differing way, but they have a Tablet PC specific version. And I could go on, but you get the jist. :)

Tablet PC Enhancements for Outlook
http://www.einsteinware.com/EinsteinWare/P...px?product_id=TEO10

Also a calculator is pretty basic and mainstream right? Well, check out: http://www.xthink.com/Calculator.html

Nearly 140-150 Tablet Ink’ified applications (not totally complete but a good listing):
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=930

Lonestar is with us at last, and I searched very hard to find something good to say about it. It doesn't ship till June, and... well I suppose I failed.

Lonestar is with us at last, and I searched very hard to find something good to say about it. It doesn't ship till June, and... well I suppose I failed.

By the way, the prices I quoted for extras on a Tablet may well be out of date. I'll go chat to some people...